5 Extreme Races For Travel-Hungry Crazy People (PHOTOS)

As famed grand tours of summer such as the Tour de France roll through Europe on carbon frames and ultra-light wheels, a number of lesser-known, if more rigorous, races are also gearing up to go. They include cycling and foot races that take athletes through some of the world's most spectacular and rugged country, as well as to the boundaries of what humans can endure, physically and psychologically.

The more demanding of them allow no rest or sleep--unlike the more publicized stage races -- and amount to nonstop endurance tests lasting as long as a week or more. Some of them also allow almost anyone to enter, in case you're interested in trying your muscles in what might be the most unenjoyable tour you'll ever take of the Sierra Nevada, the Rocky Mountains, the American desert or the Australian outback.

The Top 5 Extreme Races

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Race Across America

Called RAAM and widely considered the hardest road cycling race in the world, the event starts in mid-June in Oceanside, California and leads several hundred dogged competitors more than 3,000 miles across the entire country to Annapolis, Maryland—without stopping. Last year, Christoph Strasser, now 29, pedaled the distance in eight days, eight hours and six minutes. RAAM soloists (racers in the team divisions take turns riding) may take cat naps totaling an hour of shuteye per day, but the general idea is, you snooze, you lose. The race is so demanding that many cyclists don’t finish at all. Some have died trying. Others begin losing their wits. Some solo riders may even lose their teeth as they eat sugary foods nonstop to replace the 10,000 calories that they burn a day, and for those that don’t brush at each pit stop, teeth may decay rapidly. To get a good taste of what this race offers before you consider attempting it, read Hell on Two Wheels, in which author Amy Snyder elaborates on the many forms of misery that one can expect while pedaling without rest across the continent./ Image courtesy of Flickr user KevinSaunders.